Entry Twenty-Nine:The Final Countdown

This is the last physics blog of the year for me, folks. I'd like to thank all of my fans, the people that have been following my blog faithfully since its inception, and most of all, Doc, for inspiring every single one of these posts. This blog will die with this final post, but I must tell you that it has been a blast sharing the physics in my life with all of you.



cool

Here it goes: The other day, I watched The Shining with my friends. The movie was on a DVD, or a Digital Video Disc, and it looked shiny. This is because a DVD is made of layers of plastic that contain tiny bumps and a groove track, kind of like a vinyl record. Anyways, these bumps make an uneven surface on the disc, so that when a light ray hits the surface, it is refracted into different wavelengths, so that there is a rainbow appearance on the DVD. Also, the light reflects off of the surface of the disc in different phases, so destructive interference of the white light results in only certain colors appearing to the human eye. This is similar to the phenomenon of thin film interference, where light both reflects off of the surface of a film (like soap), and also is refracted and reflects off of the bottom of the film.

Thank you Doc! You are the best!

Entry Twenty-Eight: Lappy Toppy

Physics! So we are currently reviewing electric current and such. This laptop runs on electricity. It is plugged into the wall, and receives current. However, the voltage of the computer is much lower than the voltage of the power plant that supplies my house, but how come my computer does not short circuit due to the disparity of voltage? Transformers step down the voltage by using coils that reduce the voltage to something more manageable, like 120V. k.

Entry Twenty-Seven: I Wear Glasses Yall

We just took our test on lenses. I hope that Doc posts our updated grades soon . . .

I wear glasses because I have myopia, or nearsightedness. This means that I cannot see objects that are far away due to an imperfection of the lenses of my eyes. The light that enters them converges at a point that is slightly in front of the retina, where the light should converge to. So, the lenses of my glasses refract the light before it enters my eye so that the light can converge right on me retinas. The lenses of my glasses are diverging.

That is all.

Notice the delicate curvature of my spectacles . . .

Entry Twenty-Six: Judo States

Evan Masutani, about to dominate his opponent. MMGOOD.

Happy Mother's Day! Saturday was the Hawaii State Judo Championship. I did not win any of my matches, but I tried hard. However, I would like to point out that juniors Garett Chan and Evan Masutani took fifth and first places in their weights. GOOD. There was a lot of physics involved in the tournament. For one thing, the judoka had to deal with the force of gravity, which is 9.8 m/s^2. This was a painful force for many who were slammed mercilessly to the mat. Another principle of physics that was involved was friction, both static and kinetic. The judoka needed the force of static friction to keep them in place while they pulled on their opponent to throw them. Lastly, I guess I'll mention that there was some circular motion. Many of the throws ended up with one of the judoka sailing through the air in an arc (very exciting to watch), while their opponent pulled them in. This was the force, directed radially inward, that caused the motion. Judo is awesome.



Here is a video of some judo. Respect.

Entry Twenty-Five:

Yesterday was the Junior Prom. It was ok, held back from greatness by the noticeable lack of dancing bears. While I was dancing on the dancefloor, I looked up and noticed that the DJ was using a light machine that worked off of the principles of reflection. A colored light in a fixed position would shine down into a mirror that would angle itself in different directions, resulting in the light beam being reflected out in all different directions too. The angle of incidence, or the angle that the light enters the mirror, is the same as the angle of reflection, or the angle that the light leaves the mirror. This is very cool. Also, aside from the dancing bears, they did not play Everybody Nose by NERD.


Me and some small bro

Entry Twenty-Four: Swords of Revealing LIGHT

Last week before the Iolani Fair, the Junior Class went to visit the USS Arizona Memorial out in Pearl Harbor. We took a boat to the memorial, and the water was reflecting the sunlight into my eyes. This is because the light from the sun was hitting the water at a certain angle. The angle formed by the ray of light and the a normal from the surface of the water was equal to the angle formed by my line of vision and the same normal of the water's surface. In essence, the angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection. In a way, I was looking into the sun, which is wrong.


The water, and the oil which is still leaking . . .